This Concept of 'World'
by Tiruneko
Summary: (Re-upload!) People are stupid. This is what Miku Hatsune has believed ever since she could believe such a thing. She has little reason to think otherwise, considering her current state and the state of other's around her. Honestly, even the mere idea that she could ever meet a person that isn't a total idiot is absolutely impossible to rationalize. Take this moment, for example.
1. Can You See It?

**This Concept of World- Revised, Re-upload, version 2.0. There may be some small typos, like if I say Miku's hair is red instead of teal, let me know. Some stuff happened. My computer got weird with it. **

**Love it. Fav it. Follow it. Review it. **

**~_Tiruneko ;3_**

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**-Chapter One-**

**Can't You See It?**

**People** are stupid. This is what Miku Hatsune has believed ever since she could hold a bottle in her own hand. She has little reason to think otherwise, considering her current state and the state of other's around her. Honestly, even the mere idea that she could ever meet a person that isn't a total idiot is absolutely impossible to rationalize. At least she has many examples to back up her claim. Take this moment, for example.

"Miku? Miku? What do you see, Miku?"

"I see a blotch of ink on a piece of paper." The girl relaxes into her hand, blowing a strand of hair out of her face and listening to the soft clink of her ankle bracelet as she adjusts her position. The girl reaches up and tugs at the leather collar around her neck, groaning impatiently.

"If you wish to continue to make smart-alec comments you will be punished."

Shouldn't you refrain from insulting patients, sir?" The girl smirks as the same silky teal strand of hair falls into her eyes again. She gives her best evil grin at the man sitting across from her, dressed in a white lab coat over a crisp black suit with a tie. The man's thinning purple hair falls just into the frame of his glasses. "I think we're done for today, don't you." It's not really a question.

He pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose and uncrosses his long legs with a swish of his dress pants. The soft hum of the fish tank behind the girl is really starting to grain on her nerves.

"Yes. Yes, I do believe so." The man dressed in a crisp grey suit and white lab coat reaches for a silver button sitting on the oak side table beside him. The girl takes this moment to look around the same office she sees every day.

The room is small with one large fish tank built into the back wall behind her, a crisp looking, but rather uncomfortable, black couch pushed under it. The walls are white, like every other damn wall in the building. The floor is some kind of white concrete or tile… like the flooring in a school gym. Not that the girl has ever been in a school or a gym. All of the doors are a very dark brown with rectangular handles and a rectangular window in the center covered with bullet proof mesh. Out of this such a door a nurse with pale blonde hair tucked into a side braid enters slowly.

"Thank you, Meiko. That'll be all for Miku today. I'd like to see her tomorrow at four o'clock. I'm sending her new prescription to Kim." The purple haired man picks up a thin black tablet and touches his finger to the screen, moving around and tapping on certain things. He sets the device back down on the side table into the rectangular charging slot. He sends a harsh glare at the girl as she stands through his thin rimmed glasses.

"Yes, Mr. Gakupo." Meiko dips her head and takes out a thin metal pole. As the girl stands a cascade of teal green hair spills out over her shoulders into two pig tails reaching at ankle length. Under her eyes are heavy sleepless bags and her skin is ghastly pale. The girl turns around, allowing Meiko to clasp a pair of thick silver handcuffs around her wrists. She walks around to the backside of the teal headed girl and raises her silver pole to touch on a small circular indent in the silver and brown leather collar. The pole instantly magnetizes, uttering a small electric chirp. A little white light blinks on the face of the collar, indicating a tight lock.

"Oh and Miku?" Gakupo asks, standing. The teal haired girl turns to face him, frowning. "You will be receiving two new block mates today."

"Great." Miku mutters dryly, being "walked" out of the room by the blonde nurse. They exit out into the hallway and the florescent glow bouncing off of the gleaming white floors blinds her with the overly flashy glow of the reflection of light.

They pass by dozens of oak wood doors until they reach a large dark colored desk at the end of the hallway. Above the elevator is a black sign reading, "FLOOR FOUR". Miku is quickly herded inside and before the door can close, another nurse enters with another patient also attached to a silver pole by the collar around their neck. This patient is tall and very thin, with scraggly looking died pink hair stretching just below his eye brows. His lips are cracked and bleeding and he glances at Miku, straightening out one of his cuffed hands in a wave. His mouth flickers on a smile. Miku nods towards him and the elevator chirps.

"Floor Twelve." The mechanical female voice chimes followed by the ding of the doors swishing open. Meiko pushes on the leading prod a little too hard and Miku gags slightly as she is lead out and steps yet again onto the cold white floor.

Miku's bare feet curl upon touching the frigid surface but she is unable to stop walking. At the very end of the hallway, past a large waiting area with a glass paneled wall, is a set of dark oak double doors. Meiko slides a key card through a slot on the door handle and a white light on the opposite handle flashes and clicks open. The blonde pushes on the door and it slides open leading to, another hallway.

The two stop at the fifth door on the left with one large glass square in the center of the door. Held in by a metal frame and concealed by glass is a white notecard with a name written in lopsided, thin, and scroll-like handwriting: _Miku Hatsune._

Meiko unlocks this door and pushes Miku roughly inside, unhooking the leading stick with a soft click. She bends down as Miku raises her hands and unlatches the handcuffs as well.

The door swings shut behind her with a loud thump and the beep of the lock turning and the light indicating its shut. Miku sighs, cracking her neck with her hands and surveying her same and boring room.

Pushed up against the far back wall is a white mattress on a white metal bed with one white outfit folded under it. Directly above the bed is a four inch thick wall made entirely out of glass. On each wall on either side of the teal haired girl is a wide and long rectangular glass panel about two inches thick with a lock on each side, so that each patient on both sides would have to want to open their side to touch or hand things to each other. Not that Miku would want to.

As Miku moves over to the back wall and crawls up on her perfectly made, pillow and blanket-less bed, her knee length white pants swish around her and her half-sleeve deep maroon colored sweater bends as she crosses her legs and presses a hand against the cold glass.

After a certain period of time each patient is allowed to pick one colored shirt. Miku picked the most comfortable, yet ugly looking shirt out of all six of her options. She tugs at the collar around her neck, and that's when she hears it.

A muffled voice of a nurse and the slightly, less muffled reply of a patient. "Yeah, yeah." The voice is male.

The door to the room on her right opens too, this one is silent, though. Miku sighs, pressing her thumb to her temple and gently easing her bare feet back onto the cold floor. Her hair touches the ground before her foot. She stands for a moment, running her fingers through her right pony tail before deciding which room to go up to.

Miku turns to the room on her right, the one without a voice. She moves slowly and taps gently on the glass, hiding just behind the wall so the person on the other side doesn't see her. Yet. She waits, watching out of her peripheral vision for the person to walk over. Miku leaves her finger pressed against the glass. Another finger, slightly smaller presses itself in the exact same place as Miku's. If the glass wasn't there, they would be touching. Miku jumps slightly and the person taps part of a rhythm back.

A figure with a head of dark, golden blonde hair moves slowly from bellow into the view of the glass panel.

The girl has striking blue eyes and shoulder length choppy, orange-blonde hair with bangs that hide her eyebrows. Her skin is slightly tanned and one small cut is under her left eye, hidden by a white adhesive bandage. She is wearing the only other uniform- besides the colored shirt, of course- the building supplies, a long sleeve silk white V-neck shirt and knee-length, slightly baggy, white silk pants. Clasped around her upper neck tightly is the same part brown leather- part black collar each patient is branded with.

Miku moves within sight of the girl and points at the lock on top of the panel. The girl looks down, notices it, and unlatches the bronze chain. She places her bony fingers on the nob and slides the panel upwards. Miku does the same. She rests her fingers on the small, shelf-like frame in between the two rooms.

"Hey." Miku says casually, staring at the blonde girl before her with an emotionless expression. The girl is silent but gives Miku a small nod, as if greeting her. "Name?" The girl remains silent and emotionless. Miku rolls her eyes and the girl still remains silent and emotionless. A large knock makes Miku turn around.

In the other window is a nearly identical looking boy with the same messy blonde hair cut shorter but with scraggly bangs stopping just above his ear and dipping just above his eye brows, wearing the same uniform as the girl. His eyes have the same icy brightness. His collar hangs quite loosely around the very base of his neck. Miku marvels at how this boy could have possibly gotten away with that. He unlatches the panel and Miku takes one more glance at the girl, who stares past her and into the other room. Miku sighs, walking over to the boy's side and gradually unlatching her panel.

"Yo." The boy says, raising a hand in a bland wave. Miku raises an eyebrow and points over her shoulder with her thumb back towards the girl.

"You with her? Freakin' clones now…"

"Close. Not clones, twins. She's Rin, I'm Len." The boy declares, giving Miku a cocky smirk.

Miku runs her hand through her left pony tail. "Miku. What's her problem?"

"She's mute. Only talks to me."

"Ah." Miku says, turning around and, feeling kind-of bad, waving at the blonde girl named Rin. Rin nods her head slightly.

"She likes you." Len declares, putting both arms in the frame and leaning forward, pressing his forehead against the wall above the window.

"Great." Miku mutters unenthusiastically.

"You're a downer." Len says, giving the same lopsided and dorky grin.

Miku raises an eyebrow. "It's called depression. Sheesh, read a book." Len glances at her carefully, scanning her head to toe now.

"No shoes?" He asks.

"God, stop staring at my feet, weirdo. No, they're optional ever since some girl a floor down tried to kill herself by swallowing her shoe laces. Makes my life easier. I hate shoes. I can't feel where I'm going, although every damn room in this place feels the same…" She trails off sadly, pinching the bridge of her nose harshly.

"You're calling me weird?" The boy scoffs. "Wow…" He says staring at her feet again. "… Your hair is really long." He marvels at the almost knee length bright red strands.

"They don't really allow scissors, I opt out of haircuts."

"Special privileges?" Len raises an eyebrow.

Miku scoffs. "In my dreams."

"Aren't you gonna' ask why we're in here?" He asks.

"No. Honestly, I don't care enough." Len notices Rin raise an eyebrow from across the room and chuckles.

"Man, at least you're honest." Miku mirrors his same cocky grin.

"I have some morals still intact."

"You didn't have to say that for me to know." Len says, tapping his temple and whispering, "I'm a people person."

"Right." Miku drones, chuckling dryly. "Have you gotten your card yet?"

"Card?"

Miku nods. "Each patient receives a card and a piece of charcoal to write your name on during your first day. It stays on your door for the rest of the year, and my advice is, write neatly. If you don't the nurses automatically hate you. Some of them carry sedatives and some of them get Tasers, so, beware." Miku wiggles her fingers in a waving motion. "You've been warned…" She says in a comical tune, a thin grin spreading across her face.

Len snickers softly as the panel on his door opens, right on time. "Huh, irony." Len chuckles, shrugging and walking over to the door. He comes back a moment later, the charcoal and thick white paper in his hand. He sets the rectangular sheet on the ledge and presses the tip of the writing utensil on it, sticking his tongue out in concentration. He holds it up, grinning madly.

The letters are smudged straight through and the charcoal is pressed so deep into the page the letters are nearly illegible, huge, and very, very bold. Miku points at the two dots on either side of his name.

"What're those?"

Len looks at them and shrugs. "I dunno."

"On your own head be it." Miku shrugs. Small and faint tapping draws both of their attentions. Rin holds up her card, her emotionless stare plastered on her face, her eyes wide.

The "i" in her name is dotted with the tiny little thumb sketch of an orange with one large leaf. Miku smiles, chuckling.

"I see which one of you got the common sense gene." Rin's mouth flickers into a smile for a fraction of a second and Len smirks.

"She likes oranges." Len states.

"Yeah, I figured, Sherlock."

"You don't sound like a depressed person, what else has landed you in this happy little 'Mental Care Facility', or, as the common people call it, The Loony Bin?" Len puts Mental Care Facility in air quotes.

Miku chuckles. "I see things." She shrugs the question off.

"Well, you're very… blunt." The sun begins to set, lighting up the white room with bright shades of deep orange, yellow, and pink. That's the one good thing about this place in Miku's very twisted mind.

"Goodnight, Len." Before the boy can say more Miku shuts her side of the panel, sliding the chain in at the top and smiling at Len's defeated face as he shuts his own. Miku turns to Rin's side and mutters a soft and pleasant goodnight before the two girls close their panels. Rin's mouth flickers with a smile for a fraction of a second, and disappears again, just as soon.

The two girls close up their panels and Miku walks back over to her bed, flopping down on her back and covering her hollow eyes with her arm. She sighs softly as the last streaks of the setting sun vanish, leaving only darkness. The only light is the steady glow from the florescent bulbs in the hallway.

Miku rolls onto her side, tugging at her collar and staring boredly out the glass wall to the streets bellow and the bright lights of the cars as they whizz by occasionally on the road. The mental hospital overlooks a large capitol city, which one, Miku has no idea. The bold and gleaming neon city lights sparkle in her eyes and she allows a tiny smile to cross her lips as she thinks of the world beyond these white walls that contain the distant screams of the insane.


	2. State of Mind

**-Chapter Two-**

**State of Mind**

"**So**, Miku, how are you getting along with your new block mates?" Dr. Gakupo leans forward, his chin cupped in his right hand propped up on the arm of his uncomfortable black office chair facing the fish tank wall and that dreadful matching black couch.

Miku sits with her legs tucked under her, like a classical geisha would sit at some kind of formal gathering.

She tugs anxiously at her collar and mutters with heavy disinterest, "They're fine."

"Tell me about them."

Miku groans and waves her left hand around as she speaks. "They're fine. What more do you want? I'm not going to give you an oral biography of both of their entire lives. They're nice and don't bother me, so they're fine."

"Is there a reason you don't want to talk about them, Miku?" The purple haired doctor uses that sickly smooth and monotonous voice that makes Miku think of strangling him just so she never has to hear his fake, "I'm concerned genuinely for you" voice he uses with all patients. Miku much prefers when he's scolding or yelling at her if she gets punished, which doesn't happen often. She's been here for so long that most of the nurses are pretty lenient with her, comparatively speaking, because they already know what to expect from her and how Miku's behavior typically is. The exceptions being her bad days, of course.

"Well, for one, I consider it pointless and a waste of both of our time and energy." Miku tugs at her collar.

"Miku, part of my job is to asses all of your behaviors, including how you interact with others and how you see the world. By better understanding how you view people, you give me a better glimpse into how your mind works. So, let's try this again, tell me about your new block mates." His glasses flash as he removes his arm out from under his chin.

A thin smirk crosses Miku's cracked and dry lips for a fraction of a second. She can tell he's impatient with her. "Well, I met the girl first." She drones on exceptionally dryly, hoping Gakupo will eventually switch topics if she seems to really not care. And she doesn't. "The boy told me she's mute. I thought that was weird but I've seen weirder here. The boy seemed nice and the girl was… bland but in an interesting way. They're twins. That's new."

"How did you introduce yourself?"

"I told them my name was Miku."

"Did you mention your last name?"

"No."

"Why not?" Miku shifts her position again and glances above Gakupo's head at the LED clock. It's almost over.

"I didn't think it was important to mention."

"Didn't think? You think it's important, now?" Gakupo raises an eyebrow.

Miku grunts, "Gah. No, that's not what I mean-"

"What do you mean?" His voice never falters from its bland and frankly irritating tone.

"I mean…" Miku pauses, waiting to see if he'll interrupt again. Gakupo remains quiet, waiting. She holds onto the silence for a few seconds longer, burning her session time away. "…I mean that it wasn't important to the context or any introductions between us. It wasn't necessary to give that out in order for our 'conversation' to progress."

"People give out more information than necessary, that's how friendships form and conversations truly progress, Miku."

"They didn't give a last name, either."

"I'm not concerned with what they did. I'm concerned with what you did." Miku nods at him, pretending to care as she does every day. The clock's display turns to one in the afternoon. Miku instantly brightens. "Alright Miku…" Gakupo begins to wrap up their little discussion, picking up his tablet and selecting a few buttons. He places it back in the charging slot on the white wooden side table and presses the silver button beside him. "… Today you will be receiving a new medication with your lunch, this might help with your ongoing depression symptoms." Miku doesn't care anymore. She's only depressed because she lives in this hell hole. Besides, he says that every time they change her medication.

The blonde nurse named Meiko rushes in. "Dr. Gakupo." She dips her head respectively before attaching the leading pole to Miku and "escorting" her into the hallway where they enter the elevator.

Crammed at the back is another patient, a very small, rather young girl with dark brown pig tails. Her eyes dart back and forth rapidly and random strands of her hair are missing, ripped right out of her head. Her eyes are hollow and she twitches incessantly at random intervals. The girl doesn't look at Miku. She doesn't remember her name.

"Floor five." The doors slide open and the little girl and her nurse walk at different paces out of the small elevator and a nurse steps in with a tablet clutched to her chest. "Floor nine." Miku cracks a tiny smile that is soon cut off by her collar catching and gagging her. She curses softly under her breath as Meiko jabs her harshly in the neck, forcing her swiftly out of the elevator and pulling back harshly, Miku's handcuffs clink as she instinctively tries to release the pressure around her neck. The cuffs don't allow her to raise her hands, though, and Meiko presses into her neck, jabbing her violently again.

"Quit lagging or you'll be punished." The blonde scolds. Miku doesn't respond as they turn down the first hallway on the right, past another large reception desk, and stop in front of two brown double doors.

The room is a large open space with one large bullet proof glass wall on the left side of the hall. Packed in the center of the room are four uncomfortable black couches, identical to the one in Dr. Gakupo's office, all facing each other in a circle. On the right wall is a window covered with bullet proof mesh with an opening in the bottom only accessible from the other side where there is a café type area operated by nurses and sometimes volunteers from the outside. On the far facing wall, parallel to the only exit, are separate warm oak colored desks bolted into the wall with built in matching chairs bolted to the floor. The five desks are separated by the same warm wood colored dividers with a touchscreen panel built into the wall in each "cubby" area.

Two of these stations are occupied, both patients with the black headphones plugged into their tablet and around their ears. On the couches is a familiar patient to Miku playing cards by herself. Only ten other patients are in the room total.

Ann releases the leading pole and Miku tugs gently at her collar, walking into the hall and over to the couches. She throws herself rather ungracefully onto the seat next to the other patient. The girl jolts upwards, pulling her hands defensively to her chest and dropping two of the cards.

"Ah!" She squeals, jumping slightly. Her fair skinned face relaxes after realizing who it is. Miku bends handing the girl the cards. "Thanks, Miku." She says shyly, rubbing the back of her neck. The girl is very short and has neon green hair angled and touching her chin just barely with one very long strand falling down from the center of her face just past her nose. Her eyes are sunken but vibrant and she has on a light orange sweater with her white pants and white lace less sneakers.

"Sorry…" Miku seems to be waiting for a name.

"Honestly! You think you'd remember my name… you're always so forgetful, Miku! I'm Gumi!" The girl states shyly, blushing gently and setting her cards back onto her lap. Miku always has a hard time keeping up with Gumi, her "best friend" in the entire hospital. Gumi suffers from multiple personality disorder and, so she doesn't confuse her, Miku refrains from saying her name unless she can distinguish exactly who she's speaking to.

"Right, right, sorry. I'm kinda' out of it." Miku mutters quietly, glancing at the scattered cards on the girl's lap.

Gumi blushes again, avoiding eye contact. This is one of Miku's favorite personalities. this Gumi is extremely shy and gentle and overly considerate and kind. It makes a nice positive to Miku's always slightly negative attitude. Gumi calms her down, especially after a long and rather irritating session with Dr. Gakupo. Miku wonders if that's why they allow this free time with other patients.

"How're you doing?" Miku asks casually, craving a light hearted and shallow conversation.

"A-a little shaken, actually. My block mate to the immediate right tried to kill himself…"

"Oh." Miku jumps, slightly taken aback.

"He's okay though. You know the pink haired boy, the really tall and skinny one?" Gumi asks, glancing at Miku as she deals herself cards. Miku nods, vaguely remembering the boy from their few encounters in the elevator. "I thought he was sweet. I feel bad."

"There's nothing else you could have done, Gumi. Some people here are just… broken." Miku trails off sadly, staring at her own ghastly pale palms. Gumi stands, her cards clasped between her hands, her mouth peeling into a small smile as a nurse enters the room.

"I need to go, it's time for my session. Thanks for speaking with me as always, Miku." She blushes brightly as she always does when she speaks, and then rushes out of the room and is lead out by a nurse.

Miku sighs, relaxing into the spot where Gumi was. It's warm, making the seat more comfortable briefly. The doors push open again and two very familiar people enter, looking more than relived as their eyes fall upon Miku and their leading poles are disconnected. Len crams his hands into his pockets, hunching forward slightly as he walks. Rin hides behind him, her hands gripping his broad shoulders. She's not much shorter.

"Yo." Len plops himself down in the couch facing Miku, Rin nearly hanging on him. Miku's eyes widen suddenly and she lurches forward towards them.

"You're not allowed to touch anyone," she whispers. "They'll 'punish' you." Miku motions with her finger and Rin begrudgingly separates from her twin, shifting uncomfortably. "So… how're you guys 'adjusting'?" Miku puts the word in air quotes.

Len crosses his legs, shrugging rather boldly and draping one arm across the back of the couch as if it was the couch in his own home. "Fine, I guess. It's weird with all of the rules and blandness of it all but… what can you do? It's a mental hospital…"

Rin leans in, bringing her lips to Len's ears and cupping her hands around her mouth, whispering so softly that only someone who's been trained to listen to speaking as quietly as this could ever understand. Len nods, then turns to her, frowning. He does a quick head check and, seeing there aren't any guards, embraces Rin in a quick yet warm hug. She doesn't move and her eyes communicate something to the boy, and, sighing deeply, he turns back to Miku.

"I begrudgingly relay Rin's message. She says to apologize for yesterday, she says it's always very awkward for her to meet people for the first time, especially when I'm not there to 'explain' her 'situation'. She wants to try again now that I'm here." Len takes a deep breath, pausing, now speaking verbatim to what his twin said in his ear. Rin sits, emotionless and stoic. "'Hi, my name is Rin. I'm fourteen years old, four foot seven, natural blonde, and a mute. I have an avid liking to shards of glass.'"

Miku stifles a laugh and instead giggles softly. "I'm Miku, fifteen years old, five foot four, natural red head, and mentally 'unstable'. I like…" Miku pauses, trailing off sadly. "…I like watching birds out of my window." That's what something you like is supposed to be, right? Something you spend a lot of your time doing that you don't mind? Miku debates internally and Rin's mouth flickers on a smile for a moment, her eyes flashing.

Rin leans in to Len, and whispers. Len sighs. "She says, 'that sounded way less awkward in my head.'"

Miku laughs again. "Don't worry about it."

Rin turns to Len, whispering to him again. His eyes widen with a mixture of unreadable emotion and he turns to Rin as she pulls away, something like hurt on his face. He speaks quietly, just silently enough that Miku struggles to hear.

"Don't say that, Rin. I know, and I'm sorry, but don't say that, ever." Rin looks down at her lap, still as void of emotion as before. Len clearly sees something Miku doesn't, because he immediately lunges, grabbing Rin around the shoulders and hugging her deeply, despite the fact that a guard is standing right at the door and looking right at the mirror image twins.

"Len!" Miku whispers harshly as the bulky guard comes walking over.

Before any of the three can act one guard has pulled Rin off of Len, and connected a leading pole immediately. They jab her harshly in the back and flick the switch on, sending a jolt of electricity ricocheting violently throughout the frail blonde girl. Her head contorts and she looks like she's about to vomit, but no sound comes out. Len immediately becomes enraged, like flicking a light switch on.

"_Don't touch her_!" He commands so loudly through clenched teeth that everyone stops, even the nurses behind the café and the guards. Len lunges forward, moving to grab Rin away from the guard when everyone seems to regain their senses, and the larger guard pulls Len away, shocking him with even more ferocity.

Miku cringes as Len shouts inhumanly in pain. The first time is always the most painful. Rin is led out of the room with some dignity still intact, her head merely hung and eyes obscured by the dark blonde mass that is her hair, while her twin has to be dragged, literally, out of the room, leaving Miku alone, sitting in the chair.

Out of the corner of her vision an image flickers, there one moment, gone the next. She gulps, standing and tugging at her collar.

Her phantoms are back.


	3. Even The Shaddows Are Watching

**-Chapter Three-**

**Even the Shadows Are Watching**

"You realize how utterly unacceptable this behavior is, correct? You can be punished to our fullest extent."

"Oh, then why am I not being punished right now?" Len leans forward towards Gakupo, sneering. Gakuposighs, straightening himself in his chair and pushing his glasses gently up the bridge of his nose.

"It is your first day. You don't know the rules, yet."

"Mhm." Len nods. "Right, right. Listen up very closely, 'Doctor Gakupo.' I know the secret that will blow the top of this place and send everyone across the globe tearing into every mental hospital worldwide just to be at your throat. I know everything. I'm smarter than I look. My father, in case you didn't know, is also the chairman of Crypton Corp., the largest corporation in the world. I also noticed some of his logos around here, correct? Well, I can get him to drop his partnership with you in a heartbeat. So, you're going to listen to me and listen to me _well_." The way Len says the last word would have made anyone silence instantly. But Gakupo has had training for this kind of thing.

"What secret is that?" Gakupo asks, not even slightly bothered, rooted in his thick monotone and expressionless mask.

Len leans forward, whispering. "I know where The Illness comes from."

Gakupo's eyes widen with nothing less than horror, then fade just as fast, a tiny fraction of emotion caught in his eye for a split second. Gakupo chuckles mirthlessly, leaning back and relaxing further into his chair. His glasses flash with light.

"Oh?"

A broad smirk spreads across the blonde boy's face, showing a row of glistening and unnaturally sharp teeth. Len leans forward and mouths a sentence, silently, with no words and no facial expressions. Just his lips, moving. He pulls away very, very slowly, achingly so, until he's sitting back into the couch, arms folded over his knees, grinning ear to ear.

Gakupo's eyes widen and his pupils shrink in now what is pure, burning, and entirely unmasked, horror. His mouth opens slightly and he snaps it shut just as fast, muscles and jaw line tensing, glasses flashing.

"I can tell I'm right." Len says confidently, still grinning. "Now, if you don't want the whole world at your doorstep, I'd suggest you do what I ask, hmm? Firstly, I want to be able to walk without that stupid pole. Second, I want to be able to touch my sister. And Miku."

"Why Miku?" Gakupo suddenly interrupts.

"I haven't gotten to shake her hand yet." Len's mouth peels into a crooked smile. "Lastly, no medications. You will not give me or Rin absolutely any kind of drug, got that? Do you understand me, Doctor Gakupo?"

The purple haired man looks as if he's about to come unglued. He looks like he wants to rip Len's smirking face right off. Len begins to laugh, tipping his head backwards slightly so he can control himself. Gakupo is nearly shaking with absolute rage.

"So? Have we got a deal?" Len asks calmly, throwing his arm casually across the back of the couch.

Gakupo is silent for a long moment.

"…yes." His voice is quiet but he has regained all of his composure.

Len stands suddenly, clapping both of his hands on his waist and smiling almost as wide as he had been when he was talking. "Great. I think we're done here now, huh?" Len shoots Gakupo a look and the gaze the man gives Len would have made anyone drop dead on the spot. If looks could kill, of course. Len simply laughs and watches as Gakupo pushes the silver button next to his chair with agonizingly slow movements. The door opens and Meiko scurries in, looking slightly peeved. She raises the leading pole and Len holds both of his hands up in a stop motion.

"… That won't be necessary, Meiko. Please, show Len to his room." His tone is completely unreadable.

"As you wish, Dr. Gakupo." Meiko dips her head and waits for Len to begin walking. The blonde boy pauses in the door frame for a moment and turns his head back slightly to the unmoving therapist.

"Oh, and, Dr. Gakupo?" Len asks, smirking wildly. "_Let's play again sometime_." Meiko freezes where she stands for a long moment at the mere sound of Len's eerily cold tone. Her pupils shrink significantly and her eyes stare out with a type of glazed expression out into oblivion.

"Ann." Gakupo finally speaks as Len walks out of the room. "Lead him to his room please." Suddenly the blonde jerks back to life, shaking her head and blinking for a long moment.

"… Yes! My apologies Dr. Gakupo, I don't know what came over me." Meiko dips her head and rushes out.

"I do." Gakupo mutters as the door shuts behind the two, leaving a dark man alone to his thoughts and the soft bubbling of liquid in a fish tank.

Miku taps anxiously at one of the panes in her window, concerned deeply for the two twins. Neither have been returned to their room, even two hours after the incident in the hall. It's not that she can find it in herself to care for them at all, but it's the fear of what'll happen to her if she's alone for any longer. It feels as though every eye in the institution is on her, even though these glass walls shielding her from the outside world. All of the eyes in the city, all of the eyes in the building, all of the eyes in the whole wide world.

With a cry of panic, Miku throws her hands to her eyes, covering them and digging in slightly, pressing down with great pressure into her eye lids. But they're still watching.

'_Even the shadows are watching, Miku._' The voice is female and soft, almost childlike. The tone is flat and yet the voice is silky and to any male, instantly intoxicating. Miku shudders, collapsing onto the floor in front of her bed, pushing her finger tips in deeper.

"Go away!" She shouts, but not loud enough for the nurses to hear.

The voice seems to sigh, slightly defeated, or maybe even hurt.

'_Oh, Miku. I never even really left at all. You're kind of hurting my feelings. But I guess that's okay.' _

"Go away!" Miku screams at the top of her lungs. A long moment of silence rings afterwards and the door to her room opens with a mechanical chirp of a lock being undone. The amber haired girl stands suddenly, forcing herself to calm her breathing and look tired. As she stands two nurses, one male, one female, both come rushing in, the female one with a syringe of sedatives. "Huh?" Miku pretends to act dazed.

"We heard a scream." The man states. Miku slowly shakes her head in a "no."

"I was dreaming. I had a nightmare. It's gone now." An unclear image flickers in the corner of her eye and she forces herself with all of her might to ignore the gripping sense of panic. The female nurse scans Miku very, very carefully and meticulously before giving Miku a slight nod and shutting the room door, not before taking one last final glance of course.

Miku stands, panting, sweat steadily trickling off of her face, her breathing reduced to just frantic pants. Her shoulders arch forward and she raises one hand to her still throbbing eyes, touching a finger to each lid and closing them for a long moment, focusing on her breath.

'_You can only hear me when they're closed, but when they open-'_ Miku jumps backwards, snapping her swimming jade eyes back open and gasping as the back of her head hits the metal bed frame behind her.

She wants to rip her eyes out and claw her ears off until the only thing left is silence and dark. Then maybe she'll be at peace-

The sound of a room door being opened on either side of her causes Miku to force herself to regain some kind of composure back, at least for a minute. Len's bobbing orange head becomes visible and Miku sighs, glancing around her to the bounds of her vision to make sure nothing is there. With a ragged sigh and a deep shuddering intake of breath, Miku stands just as Len's rhythmic knock plays on the glass of their panel.

She moves over to the wall slowly, limbs shaking gently from her… encounter. She slides the panel open with shaking hands. Len is leaning in the shelf between the two again, he lifts his head upon seeing Miku's expression.

"Whoa. You oka-", Len starts but Miku cuts him off a little louder than she intended.

"-fine. I'm…" She slows herself down again. "…fine.", Miku's wide eyes steadily survey Len's figure, his broad shoulders, pale yet tough looking skin, slightly chaliced hands, scraggly and feathery hair, swimming crystal eyes-

"Miku? Are you checking me out?" Miku's face is already too drained of color to go any paler with shock. Instead she glares at him and crosses her arms.

"No. I'm looking for injuries." Her voice is void of emotion.

Len chuckles awkwardly, "He-he, what?" He raises an eyebrow and gives her a lopsided and confused expression. "Injuries?"

Miku's face regains some color and her mouth opens slightly. "T-they didn't punish you?" Len gapes at her genuine shock.

"N-no… what kind of punishment are we talking about here, 'cos I'm a little lost?" Len furrows his brow slightly.

Miku's jaw literally drops. "How'd you do it?"

Len chuckles before shrugging and changing the subject. "What happened to you? You look like you're super freaked out." Miku gulps a little, paling again. He stops her before she can speak. "Ah- and don't say you're fine again, 'cos you're clearly not."

Miku shakes slightly, dipping her head down and shaking it in a "no." "Look, I'm just really tired, and it's almost dark. I'll talk to you tomorrow, Len." Before he can say more Miku closes up her panel and changes into her only other outfit, a white sleeping gown, out of sight of the two windows. Miku then turns to her bed, crawling in and curling up to watch the sunset out her window. And try not to cry.

Len sighs, tuning back to his own room and staring out of his own glass wall out into the city. He can't help but grin devilishly. He won today.

He moves over to his bed and while he lies down his finger catches on the metal of the bed frame and he raises it to his blue eyes, studying it. His eyes slowly begin to nearly shake in their sockets and he stands on shaking legs and pinches the cut so that more blood begins to trickle out of the thin and shallow cut gradually.

As his breath slows to barely being there at all, Len places the tip of his bloodied finger to the white wall where the window is.

Then, as if something snaps in his brain, Len begins to move at an unmatchable speed, his bleeding finger sailing over the white surface of the wall, decorating it with different shades of dripping red streaks. He paints with this pain, an epic battle, a poem, a story, a fire, a resurrection, a love story, a death, a birth, a loss- he paints a whole world in his blood, moving at such a rate his own mind can't focus on the reality outside of the walls of his canvas. His bloody, red canvas. Len is a painter. The walls are his canvases, his hands are his brushes, and his blood is his paint.

A giant breath comes whooshing into his lungs as the blonde finally inhales, stepping backwards on even shakier legs as he stares at one tiny little splotch of blood on his finger tips and the pale white and colorless walls of the room, entirely boring and blank. He places his finger in his mouth, licking the one lone drop of blood away before facing the overwhelming darkness of the room.

He must have stood there for hours. The blonde moves back over to his bed, but a noise stops him. Len rushes over to the glass panel, peering through into the shadowy, but visible room. On the other side of the glass, Miku is collapsed onto her knees, her hands covering her eyes, crying. And shaking.

He thuds on the window but the noise is drowned out entirely by the voice drowning Miku's ears.

'_-when they open you can't hear me anymore. I'm there, but you won't look. Why won't you look.'_ It's not a question, more of a whine or a plea.

Miku can't think, can't close her eyes because she'll hear it, can't open her eyes because she'll see it, can't sleep because it'll watch her, always watching her- the eyes are always watching her.

Len watches in horror. An idea flashes through his mind. He pushes it out quickly. But then it comes back, he hates to use that on Miku, but… he can't think of any other way to stop her. She's nearly clawing her eyes out.

Len opens his panel so that there's only one wall of glass for his voice to travel through. It won't be that hard, regardless. He cups his hands over his mouth and takes a deep breath before speaking in the same tone that stopped the guards, the same tone that stopped Meiko, and the tone he attempted to use to silence Doctor Gakupo.

"Miku! Stop! Listen to me! Stop!" Almost instantly Miku's shoulders drop after the last word. Her hands fall limply to her sides and she sits silently. "Open your panel now, Miku. Please come here, and open your panel."

Miku stands, moving into a puddle created by moonlight. Her blood shot eyes now have small cuts under them from her nails that steadily ooze with very minimal blood. He stopped her before they were too deep. Her hair is tangled, her lips dry, her ears red from being clawed at. Slowly, she staggers over to the window, and slides open the panel.

"Miku?" Len asks in a shaky tone, one he hasn't used in a while.

Her eyes snap out of the cold glazed look that had ensued. Her hands immediately fly to them, and Len's hand shoots out and grabs her by the wrist. Miku flinches at the sudden contact and immediately tugs away. Len doesn't release her.

"You- what're you doing? You can't touch anyone it's against the rules-", her voice is shaky and high pitched when Len tugs her forward and cuts her off abruptly.

"Why were you clawing your freaking eyes out?" He demands harshly. Miku whines slightly, not wanting to answer him. Her jade green eyes dart around, searching for something. "Miku." He says again, in that same flat and cold tone.

"I-it's my… illness." Len's eyes widen. Of course. "I know that. Tell me what it is."

"I-I already told you that I see things, yesterday night, remember?" She begins to shake, her voice barely a whisper.

"Miku… what do you see, exactly?"

Miku shakes her head. "It's just a hallucination, I'm in here because I'm crazy, Len, I'm here for a reason-"

"I can make it better, Miku. For a while." Her eyes snap open wider, if that's even possible.

"W-what…"

Before she can respond, Len grabs her around the back of her neck and pulls her into the window, pressing his thumb in the center of her forehead and extending his index finger out to the center of her head.

The world seems to rush through Miku's head at high speed, images crashing into her eyes, flying by like birds outside of her window. It hurts. It burns. It hurts. It stings and it _hurts. _ Then she's there. Her voice is there, her body is not. That flickering phantom-

"Go away for a while." Len's voice, soft, yet cold and commanding. A reply. A reply from the phantom, inaudible. Indistinct, infrequent, the burning cold of the images and-

Miku pulls away sharply with all of her strength. She falls onto her back on the floor shaking. Across the room to her right is the phantom.

A girl slightly shorter than herself stands with hollow looking and indescribably grey and dark, colorless eyes. Her hair is almost the color of moonlight, a bleach white shade of blonde. It spills out over the length of her back, cascading off of her shoulders and pudding on the floor beneath her feet. She is wearing the sleeping shirt all patients off the hospital are required to own, except she has no collar. Her skin is ghostly pale and absolutely flawless, her body type thin and frail looking, delicate, almost.

Len turns to her, his voice heard but face invisible in the window. Miku is too terrified to look away from her hallucination.

"_Go away now. You're scaring her. She's hurting. Please." _

The girl's head slowly turns, as if moving a centimeter every decade, until her dead and colorless eyes are focused on Len's stoic yet bizarrely gentle expression. Her head moves slowly, almost invisibly, with a faint and barely recognizable nod. Her eyes travel to Miku once again and then flickers into nothing.

"Miku." Len turns his attention to Miku, still collapsed out on her back on the floor. "Breathe. Your face is purple."

Miku suddenly realizes her lungs are screaming and her mouth opens suddenly, air rushing inwards. Len looks across her room and sees Rin in the window. Her nods to her and mouths something, giving her a smile. Rin gives her faint nod and disappears again, back into her bed.

After a long moment of Len watching and Miku lying sprawled out on the floor, just trying to breathe, she finally stands, facing Len at a safe distance.

"What did you do?" She gasps, a trail of blood running down from her eye and dripping onto the white floor beneath her shaking feet.


	4. My Closed Off Mind

**-Chapter Four-**

**My Closed Off Mind**

Miku presses herself flat up against the back wall, as far away from Len as possible, too terrified to even close her panel. A million questions run through her mind like a flood, each one more pressing than the last. Her breathing is shallow and ragged, her hair moist with sweat. She becomes strikingly aware of the pain stinging the cuts around her eyes and with a soft whimper she touches one finger to her left eye, drawing away blood.

Across the room and through the panel is Len, standing there, leaning into the window, like nothing ever happened at all, like he hadn't just spoken to _the phantom_. Miku's phantom.

"T-this is s-so stupid…" Miku quivers as she speaks. "…this is the stupidest thing of them all!" She shouts loud enough for Len to hear, but quiet enough that any guards or nurses outside don't.

"Stupid? Watch who your calling stupid…" His shoulders sag and Len sighs. "I just did you a huge favor!"

Miku continues to shake with each breath, completely unable to think of what to say next. She feels, for the first time in many, many years, stupid. "T-tell me what's going on right now!" She demands, eyes spitting venom.

"I will, don't worry."

"Now!" Miku hisses, fists clenching instinctually.

"No, not now."

"Why?" She almost screeches.

"Because I'm tired." Len cocks his head sideways to get a better look at the nearly hysterical red head. "You should get a nurse to treat those cuts soon. I can tell they hurt and by the looks of it, they're deep. Goodnight, Miku."

He closes his panel and walks away before the girl can respond. Helplessly confused and exhausted, Miku simply collapses onto the floor directly under her. Her cheek presses into the floor and her body curls up onto the cold tile, the impact of the ground on her head absolutely numbed by the furious sting of her eyes.

Blood is still dripping from them and touching her hands and the floor, and soon all she can see is red, yet she can't bring herself to move or close her eyes. The world spins with incredible force and her head throbs with a soft, almost eerie drumbeat created in the back of her mind to dull the pain away. Darkness fills her vision, and before Miku can think twice, sleep has taken her.

Rin's eyes stare outwards, fixed on a blank slate of oblivion. The wall is filled with so many interesting things. Well… the things _beyond _it, of course. Her head cocked slightly sideways, her slightly longer than shoulder length, blonde hair obscuring the view of her eyes with their smooth golden strands. That's okay. She doesn't need to see to watch the world.

After a long moment she turns back to face the wall where Miku is. Rin sits with her legs folded under her, head cocked sideways with her simple blank expression, as per usual.

Her ears slowly begin to warm and Rin's cheeks automatically flush with a shade of white, causing her skin to pale just a little. She allows her eyes to close, then re-open. But this time, she's not seeing the wall.

She's seeing a black canvas filled with pain and such deep terror. Miku. Rin flickers on frowning for a moment, but decides against it swiftly out of instinct, and allows her ears, or rather, her _sights _to drift farther.

As Rin stares blankly at the wall the same as she had before, she instantly relaxes at the familiar space she knows all too well as her twin. His mind is quite calm, for a change. But he's worried. About the cuts on Miku's eyes, Rin can see that too. She's always been able to see with her ears, hear the tone of the mind of others, and become one in their mind for a moment. They never even ever know she's there, well, Len being the exception.

"_He can probably feel me in there…",_ she thinks silently. Rin can't help but notice how Len's allowed his mind to even _further _relax, making her just want to sleep. Rin allows herself to scowl for a fraction of a second, maybe even less. She had done a good job at not being tired- until now. Len wants her to sleep, but she can't knowing he's in a different room. He seems to notice this, too. So, he allows his mind to drift to his earlier conversation with a certain doctor.

Rin leans up against the wall she shares with Miku's room, her toes curling around the sheets of the mattress. She tucks her chin in between her knees and pulls herself away from Len. He's really made her tired now.

But still, she fights sleep.

Miku… Miku is a different situation, one that Rin decides needs the utmost and absolutely most careful contemplation she can offer, which means time alone in her _own _mind, for a while.

She can't stay in there too long, however, or the information consumes her like a storm, and she'll dive head first into her own swimming madness of over compensation for a much too dumb world.

Miku enters the Main Hall tentatively, her fingernails practically clawing the skin off of her palms. Heavy sleepless bags are under her hollow looking blue eyes and white bandages circle under them, concealing still occasionally oozing and deep cuts.

Her shaking eyes travel over to the computer stations as the nurse unhooks her leading pole. Sitting in the cubby on the far left, closest to the window, are Len and Rin. Yes, both in the same chair. Because of Rin's unusual tiny size, both of the siblings can fit comfortably sharing the same chair. The headphones are around Len's ears, Rin's head resting on his shoulder. As he types and flicks through pages on the screen, Rin will nod or shake her head to him at different intervals, indicating him to move on to the next page, or stay where he is.

Suddenly, as if the blonde haired girl could feel that the nearly shaking Miku had entered the room, her head turns around slowly, daunting crystal eyes locking on with Miku's and making her jump, yelping with surprise.

Len turns, a bored look on his face. He brightens instantly upon seeing the red head, and holds up a hand in a wave, nearly slapping Rin across the face in the process.

Miku forces herself, with a deep gulp and a shuddering exhale of breathe, to walk on quivering legs towards the twins, each step agonizingly painful. She stops, standing behind their chair, now turned to face her. Looking closer Miku can now see that Rin is sitting comfortably in Len's lap, watching her with her typical bland and emotionless eyes. Len has an ear to ear smirk plastered across his face that makes the red head cringe. Noticing Miku's panicked face his eyes soften as he looks at her.

"You okay?"

Miku practically shakes with fear and rage. "N-no…" She mutters louder than she had wanted to. Rin's head turns slightly and her mouth opens a sliver but no words come out. Miku tenses and feels like something is pulling at her. Regaining a little bit of her strength she sucks in a deep breath and demands, "Tell me exactly what you did to me."

There is a very long pause before Len just begins laughing, slapping his knee, laughing. Miku wants to claw his throat out and touches a finger tentatively to her stinging cuts hidden under the white bandages.

"Tell me!" She says louder. A guard raises his head from across the room and Len's face twists in surprise. He raises both of his hands in a wild gesture.

"Shh! Shh!" He reaches out to touch her and Miku instantly flinches away, clenching her eyes shut in anticipation. After a long moment she re-opens her eyes to be faced with a slightly hurt looking Len and a completely, as usual, emotionless Rin.

Len looks at Rin and she reaches up, pulling his head down and whispering to him so quietly Miku thinks she just moved her lips and made no sound at all. Len nods and turns to look back at her, probably to relay a message from his mute counterpart.

Surprisingly, he doesn't. He simply exhales deeply and takes the headphones off of his shoulders. He taps Rin on the left shoulder twice and she stands, waiting for him at the side of the chair. Her eyes flash as she looks at Miku and forces the red head to close her eyes for second. When she looks at her again, Rin is, again, completely emotionless.

By now Len is standing and he motions for Miku to follow him over to the couches. She sits where she had yesterday and Len sits exactly across from her like last time too, except this time, Rin sits herself down in his lap again. Miku puts this function of their bizarre relationship away for later. For a moment Miku thinks she saw Rin scowl. She watches in confusion as the blonde girl again whispers to her identical twin and he snickers slightly, sighing.

"Rin says it's not weird that she sits in my lap. She says if you were her, it would make sense, but that you aren't, and to stop judging her." Miku's eyes go wide with shock and she gaps slightly.

"H-how… did she…?"

Len laughs, grinning devilishly again. "It's what we _do. _Well what _she _does. I, I, do this." Suddenly his voice goes to that striking tone he had used the night before when speaking to Miku's "hallucination."

"_Stand." _

Instantly Miku rises to her feet, of absolutely no control of her own. Shaking like a leaf, she immediately sits back down, pulling her knees up to her chest and gasping. Her hands fly to her eyes, fingers instinctually going to claw at her scars, old and new.

"_No, stop!" _Len lunges forward and flinches as Miku again immediately freezes in motion. Rin's face shows a small strand of emotion for once as she turns to gape at her sibling. Her mouth is slightly open and her eyes are just barely wide with surprise. Len seems to notice it too and mutters quietly. "Sorry, Miku, I really am. I didn't mean to do it that time, but-"

"I-I-It's fine." She stutters out, lowering her hands to her lap and lowering her legs of her own accord this time. Truly, she doesn't really care about that time. Although it was absolutely terrifying, the second command he gave her was justified. Blinking once to clear her thoughts, she begins to speak again. "What was that?" Her voice sounds much more like her own.

Len sighs deeply and relaxes into the couch, Rin in turn relaxing into him, her boring and rather flat eyes still attentive and wide open, like a snake.

"You're going to hate me for this… but I can't really tell you. I want to, I'll have to, really, but I can't. Really, honestly, not here. I can't tell you here, it's just out of the question. But I've- we've given you all the puzzle pieces. You're smart enough to pick them up on your own, Miku, I'm sure of that." Rin nods at her barely.

"O-okay." Miku manages to squeak out, absolutely exhausted.

A nurse with stringy brown hair then enters the room, holding a tray of white paper cups and a clipboard in her hands. She stands at the front of the ordering window for the "café", directly behind Miku, and positions her clipboard in one hand, the tray poised in the other. She clears her throat and starts speaking in a flat and nasally tone.

"James, A."

A boy at one of the stations stands, twitching rather uncontrollably, and holds out his hand. He picks up the white cup and takes out a pink colored pill, placing it on his tongue and swallowing. Afterwards he opens his mouth and the nurse looks around inside, checking to make sure he actually swallowed the medication.

"Next. Miku, S." The room is surprisingly empty today, and she isn't surprised at how soon her name came. Much to Len's obvious dismay, Miku approaches the nurse.

The brunette woman places a white cup in Miku's hand and the red head peers down into it, grimacing at the sight of not one, not two, but four pills. Three a white color and one a red and pink striped tablet. The striped pill is always her anti-depressant, the other three pills are the new medication Dr. Gakupo mentioned. They're either placebos or actual medications. Miku crosses her fingers as she swallows them, praying for the placebo. She opens her dry mouth and the nurse scans the inside before Miku turns and walks back to where she was sitting. The nurse continues to call out names as Len gives her a disapproving glare.

"What was that?"

"Med call." Miku states simply, crossing her legs. Now, this, this is _her _turf. Not some crazy phantoms and bizarre blonde twins, but the system of the Mental Hospital. That she knows like the back of her hand.

"Huh?" Len looks confused.

"My medication, for my schizophrenia and depression and anxiety."

Len raises an eyebrow, frowning grimly. "You have none of those things."

"What? Of course I do, then why the heck else would I be here in the first place?" She snaps, getting angry.

"No, you really don't." Rin turns around, shooting Len a disapproving glare. He sighs. "I shouldn't tell you this… but… they've put you in here because they said you're a 'danger to others around you and yourself', right?" Miku nods, still quite angry. "Well, they _lied. _You're not a danger to other people, you're a danger to _society. _Specifically _their _society. You may be a danger to yourself, that, I can't account for."

"What are you talking about?" Miku tugs at her collar, still very irritated.

"Things." Len grins. "Just _things._"

The nurse suddenly turns and leaves the hall, causing Len's mouth to peel open into a rather terrifying smirk ear to ear. Rin turns to look at him, face still completely bland of any emotion. Len puts a hand on the top of her head and pats it gently, still grinning bizarrely.

"They held up their end, Rin. We've gotta' hold up ours now."

She reaches up and whispers something to him in her weird, wordless way again. He laughs. "You're the-", he catches himself suddenly, as if about to say something he shouldn't. "-you know. Anyways, of course they're just testing us. And yes, I promise you, things will get interesting soon." He chuckles.

Len looks over her head towards the snack window. "How do you get stuff from there?"

"Just go ask them. They ask for your name and they have to put it into the computers. It keeps a record of everyone and what they order and what they like. It also checks to see if you have a ban on your record, which means you can't buy anything. You normally only get that if your punished, though, so you'll be fine."

Len looks at Rin. "Want something?" He asks. She stares past Miku into the window and glances at the menu from a distance. She nods and whispers to him. She shifts off of his lap and lets him stand, leaving the mute and the tealette alone.


	5. Random Acts of Kindness

**Thank you, Zhane17, Crystal Prower, and Awesome D.T for you're reviews! You guys make my day~ ****This update took longer than I had hoped but life just kinda' keeps kicking me while I'm down these days. Plus I've spent the last few weeks lost in the glorious, glorious land of Jhonen Vasquez comics and rewatching every Invader Zim episode five times... Anyways, thank you guys for being patient, and, as promised, new chapter. **

**This chapter deals pretty heavily with Miku and her Illness... Oh and if you ever have theories or guesses as to where the story is going, don't be shy to leave it in your review! I love to hear what you guys think is going to happen!**

**And a warning, the next update probably will not be for a while. I have finals in two weeks and comicon the weekend before so my life will be crazy for a while, though I always check my PMs! **

**Enjoy,**

**~_Tiruneko ;3_**

* * *

**-Chapter Five-**

**(You Know What They Say About) Random Acts of Kindness...**

That night, Miku dreamed. There was an empty, echoing feeling that vibrated down her spine and touched her to her very core. It was an uncomfortable, itching, nagging emotion that made her feel very _sick. _She'd had these dreams before. This feeling wasn't new.

And that only seemed to make it worse.

In the dream, she stood in the center of a brick plaza surrounded by expensive clothing stores, a quaint café, and an ice cream parlor too. In the dream she was warm. Comfortably so, like a warm summer day that still smells like spring. How she knows what such a day would feel like isn't relevant. Miku doubts she's experienced anything similar but yet, here she _was—_is.

At first around her there are—_were _no people. The sun was hanging low in the sky in that lazy position right on the cusp from late morning to early afternoon. Miku found herself walking, a blonde ponytail swishing into her peripheral vision with each step—_her _blonde ponytail. The whole sensation of walking, her neon green flip-flops hitting the warm concrete, the cold perspiration of the plastic lemonade in her hand, that calming breeze in her hair, and the ache of smiling too much was a welcome sensation.

The dream felt—_feels _good. It feels so, so good, Miku never wants to wake up. _She _never wants to wake up.

She's standing now in one of those clothing stores, mouth moving, talking, (she can taste the cheap, fruity chapstick on her lips as they move) yet she doesn't know the words or hear them. She has the vague sense that someone responds just as the scene changes again and she finds herself again on the sidewalk.

_She's _happy. Glancing down at the cell phone in her other hand to check the time, _she _catches sight of the florescent peach color of her acrylic nails. Absentmindedly, _she _makes a mental note to repaint those later, before…

A flicker in the corner of her eye stops her leisurely stroll through the shopping district. _She _stops to glance in the tinted store windows to her right and a person behind the glass, in the store, catches her eye.

It's a _girl, _maybe her age, maybe younger, with the oddest _teal _hair… The _girl_ is crying, her features distorted behind the glass and her motions silent. But… it's not crying its retching, screaming, desperate, hysterical sobbing and the _girl _is hitting the glass window, pounding it over and over. _She _can see the glass vibrate with each attack but hears no sound. In fact, the world seems to melt into a slow motion and that _feeling _comes back… the eerie, hollow daze. _She _finds herself feeling… distant. The cold of the drink in her hand is gone.

_She _watches the girl with growing perplexity. She's dressed in a sweater—something far too warm for this season… _She _notices now. The _girl's _eyes… _bleeding. _

Come to think of it… her _own _eyes are itching… itching a _lot. She _raises both of her hands to dig at them carefully, only feeling an increasing pain the longer her fingers linger there. When _she_ lowers her hands the_ girl _is clawing at the glass, throwing herself against it, crying a steady stream of red, red blood.

Something red on the tips of her fingers catches her eye. _She _glances down. Blood, trails of blood, smudges of blood coat her fingers, nails, hands. _She _screams a soundless scream and that ache in her chest has opened and collapsed, a giant, gaping chasm and it has _teeth. _

Feeling like she'll suffocate anytime now under the tasteless, still air, _she _glances—_glanced _in the window, searching for the _girl. _

A perfectly calm, blonde girl in a ponytail holding a lemonade in her hand stares back at her from beyond the still vibrating glass.

And Miku let out a scream that could've woken the whole hospital.

* * *

_Dear Diary, (now isn't that a little cliché?)_

_After my… incident… Dr. Somebody-or-another said I need to start keeping a dream-journal. I told her I didn't remember any of it. That's a lie. I remember __**all **__of it. I've had that dream a million times. I'd have to be blessed to forget. Last time I checked, there's no such thing as blessed in this world. _

_They told me they won't check or read this, purely for my benefit. I don't believe them. I guess I'll find out if I'm punished though, huh?_

_April 12._

* * *

Miku is banned from the common area for an indeterminate amount of days after her "night terror" successfully woke the entire twelfth floor. The doctor she saw (Gakupo happened to not be on duty that night) decided it would be best if Miku had some time alone for personal reflection… she recommended Miku go on a journey into herself, to maybe search within her subconscious for a root of the dream that the tealette swore up and down she couldn't remember anything about.

If there's one thing Miku is good at, it's lies. But the Dream always throws her off her game. Every time, without fail.

She spends the next few days pacing her room back and forth, uncharacteristically frustrated. A nurse comes every morning and night to give her medications. They're new and the first dose makes Miku puke and then want to sleep.

Sleep is no longer an option.

The second day, the nurse is distracted by another patient and Miku manages to fake taking the pills. The nurse thankfully doesn't notice.

Len and Rin have been gone and Miku isn't sure where they could possibly be. She hasn't seen them since they were in the Main Hall and Len bought her snacks…

Miku doesn't like this… waiting.

The real force of sleep deprivation comes to her the third night. The migraine is most prominent. After pacing to distract herself becomes far too exhausting and exertive a task, Miku settles for sitting underneath the window to Rin's room, glaring into Len's window, willing the peculiar boy to reappear. Her head won't stop lolling to the side and blinking is increasingly agonizing.

Miku finds herself idly scratching at her eyes, the healing and fresh, raw scabs around them now even more prominent against the deep purple bags around her eyes.

Slowly, her body wins the increasingly desperate battle to stay awake, and Miku's eyes close for only a moment… just a moment…

"_Back to this, are we?" _

Her head jerks upwards so fast her neck aches. Miku lets out a pained gasp and her fingers twitch on a reflex.

"You just _had _to stop taking the anti-psychotics, huh?" she grumbles bitterly to herself, staring blankly at her now stubby fingernails. The nurses cut her once elegant nails down to stubs to prevent her from further injuring herself.

Before she notices it's happened, her eyes are again closed.

"_Just like that… sleep…" _

"Stop it!" Miku shouts, slapping the floor uselessly in a sudden burst of rage.

Miku stares at her bare feet absently for a very long moment.

"You're pathetic," she says softly into her knees, taking comfort in the reply of no one.

* * *

_Dear Dream-journal,_

_I hate to admit it, but I kinda miss Rin and Len. _

_I want to see Gumi again, too. _

_And I want my computer time back… not listening to music sucks. _

_..._

_A nice nurse with black hair gave me a music player and some headphones. The music player is pre-stocked and none of it is anything I know but it's nice to listen to something but myself for a while._

_April 15._

* * *

The door slides open and Len begins his leisurely saunter into the hallway, Rin at his arm, flanked by two nurses, looking on edge. He wonders distantly… well… _primarily _about Miku, if we're being honest as they draw closer to their rooms. The thought of parting from Rin again is painful, nearly physically so, yet he manages to keep it together with other distant thoughts.

When they're just down the hallway, he can feel that warm tingling behind his eyes. He registers Rin's voice as clear as day, echoing around in his head, present, but not deep enough to pry into his thoughts.

"_Something's wrong." _

He's instantly thinking of Miku and the look in Rin's eyes tells him instantly that he's right.

_It _shouldn't have taken as long as it did…

Len has no further time to think on it before he's ushered into his room, away from the warmth of Rin's form beside his, and greeted with the cold, unfeeling air of this prison cell he now must call home. Once oriented, he practically dashes to the window.

Miku is slumped underneath Rin's window, facing his, with her knees bent and legs extended, her elbows propped on her knees and her hands cradling her head, her eyes down cast. Her hair is oily and a large pair of black headphones sit over her ears. In one constantly twitching hand is a purple I-pod shuffle. He taps on the glass.

Her head jerks up in one swift movement. Len recoils instantly in shock. Thick, white bandages cover both of her cheeks. Her eyes are sunken into her skull with dark purple, almost grey circles so heavy set it looks like paint. The skin on top of the deathly purple is marred with scabbed, raw, crescent shaped cuts and scratches, each looking more painful than the last. Miku pushes the headphones to her shoulders and, with stiff and jerky movements, makes her way to the window.

"What happened to you?!" Len blurts out before he can stop himself.

Miku stares at him for a long moment, seemingly debating whether he's real or not. He can see her swallow heavily and look at anywhere but his eyes. Not really knowing how to answer, she shrugs deftly, sending a very real pang of sorrow straight to Len's chest.

Len extends his hand through the window in a silent gesture. Miku eyes it warily before steadily, albeit cautiously, placing her raw fingertips into his warm palm. She stays stiff and uncomfortable with the small contact while Len wraps his hand around hers, clutching and rubbing her palm with varying pressure and speed.

"I'm sorry," he says softly in a measured tone.

Miku's voice is forced and awful sounding when she speaks. "Why?"

"That I wasn't… here."

She doesn't comment except for, a few moments later, an idle, "where were you, anyways?"

Len forces a coy smile, shrugging in a similar fashion as Miku had moments ago, though they seem like hours now. They stand there quietly for a long time. Len hardly notices the warm tingling through the moment of awkward and tense silence.

Rin's voice floats to him like a memory of a dream. _"Four days." _

"You need to sleep," Len says gently. Miku, for a moment, has the gall to believe he actually is _concerned _for her wellbeing before an angry voice in the back of her mind snaps, 'bullshit, he doesn't _care! _He doesn't _get _it! How _could_ he?' It stings how easily she believes it.

She glares at the floor for another long moment before pulling a little ways out of his grasp until her hand slips out completely, cold again just as fast.

"Miku…" he almost sounds… hurt?

Her eyes, for the first time in days, meet his and hold his gaze. For a brief, fleeting fraction of a second, Len understands what it's like to look into someone's eyes and know true, palpable, inescapable fear of the look inside of them. The contact sizzles and where she sees him, Len's skin burns as if dipped in acid. Those _eyes _then quickly jerk away from him and suddenly he can breathe again.

_Too quickly, too quickly to think, to try and—and help her, God what do I do? How do I help her? How can I—this is all too fast—_

"I can't close my eyes anymore," she mumbles, hardly audible, before the panel slides shut with a harsh CLACK and she disappears like a shadow from sight.

That night, Len dreams of her eyes and a great, raging fire from which he cannot escape.


	6. Clarity

**This update is short, confusing, and ends abruptly. You're welcome.  
**

**Much loves,**

_**~Tiruneko ;3**_

* * *

**-Chapter Six-**

**Clarity**

_April 18__th_

_I don't take the pills anymore. I don't see anymore. I don't sleep anymore. I don't talk to Len or Rin anymore. _

_I'm starting to feel like myself again. _

…

Rin stares out the large window of the Main Hall, Len's lean arms wrapped around her waist comfortably as she sits perched in his lap. Rain falls from the sky heavily. To any normal eyes, they're just two twins sitting, breaking the rules by touching, and watching the rain fall and fall and fall… but really…

She floats aimlessly through Len's thoughts, relaxed, calm, brooding surface layers and then deeper, anxiety tinged ones beneath. His questions… his questions… She sees a lot of Miku in his head. A lot of her hair, her eyes, her lips—Rin frowns. Len stares forward, oblivious. Feeling rather annoyed, she decides now's as good a time as any. "_Why her?" _She lets float to him, it sinks into the back of his mind, like an itch you just can't quite get at, a spreading warmth in the back of his brain and the question is raised, just like that. He knows exactly where it's coming from and it sure as hell isn't from his own subconscious.

Len sighs before grumbling incoherently. "She's… not right." Rin is not amused. He can feel it—her emotions, a palpable fog hanging thick in his head. _Not supposed to be there, _his mind tells him. It can tell the feelings are foreign. That's the only way they can distinguish themselves when they're touching or close... instinct. He keeps going. "I can't figure out what's wrong with her."

"_She might be…?" _

"No, no… I'm not sure."

"_There's one way to find out." _

"Is there?"

A pause.

"I don't want you to do that."

"_Len." _

"It's—"

"_She's not alright." _

"But it's—"

"_I don't like that you like her." _

"Why?"

"_She's… off."_

"So you agree?"

"_You forget that I'm in your head, brother dear." _

Pause.

"It's not like that."

"_Do you want it to be like that?"_

"No! I…"

"_Len." _

"I want to help her—"

"_Fix. You want to fix her." _

"No—"

"_She's not us." _

"You don't know for sure."

"_You don't want me to find out." _

"You can't just go throwing yourself in people's heads!"

"_You've never had a problem with it before." _

"Rin. Out. Now."

They separate, like pulling apart Velcro. Rin wiggles out of Len's grasp, hops up, and strolls away, seating herself comfortably at one of the tablet stations, slipping a pair of headphones on and dethatching herself from reality. Len feels sick. And he suddenly _really _needs to talk to Miku.

After he came back, she stopped talking to him, stopped acknowledging him. It doesn't matter if he's watching her like a hawk, it doesn't matter if he's tapping on the window, it doesn't matter if he's itching to get inside her head, probe her mind, talk to her, look at her, make _eye _contact with her, she doesn't _notice, _like she's slowly erecting a wall between her and the world. With each passing day her eyes get darker, her skin gets paler, and her demeanor becomes sicker. In certain light her hair looks blonde to him now and she often just sits on the floor, slumped against the glass of her window and the wall, bleary eyes fixed dead ahead, unseeing.

She drifts off sometimes, but only briefly. When she does sleep it comes fitfully and painfully, and she wakes up almost worse than she went to bed. Every day she seems to be fading further, stepping farther away from him and, even after such a short time, Len is not okay with that.

He wants her to be okay.

Len stands and walks back to the elevators.

…

_I had the dream again. I don't remember waking up.  
_

…

Len stops in front of the tall nurse with short brown hair in a red necklace. Her name tag says _SAKINE, MEIKO. _She looks terrified. "_Give me the keys to Miku Hatsune's room_," he says. The woman blanches, and, with a dazed look, fishes out a key card. "_You've lost your key card, Meiko. Whatever shall you do? Better go find a replacement, huh? Get out of here, I'm done with you._" The woman blinks, runs a hand through her hair, seemingly not seeing Len, and rushes off, frazzled and wide-eyed.

He hesitates in front of the door. Gulping, he places a hand on the silver handle, slides the card in, and pushes the door open. It makes no noise.

"Miku?" Her head snaps around as if on a pivot.

Her eyes are saucer-wide and her mouth drops open as Len closes the door. "You-you… what?" Miku chirps, shocked and almost afraid.

"Key card," he flashes the device to her, smiling. She turns her attention back to the wall, frowning deeply. He walks and bends down in front of her before lowering himself to the ground all together, the wall facing her, back against it, feet almost touching hers. "Are you okay?" Len asks her, and the sincerity in his voice is not lost to her ears.

Miku shrugs. "Been better, been worse." Len watches her raptly. "I don't know what to say to you… I don't wanna' talk at all."

"You're exhausted," he says plainly. Miku grunts in response. "Why won't you sleep?"

"Because I _**can't**__!"_ She screams, slamming her fist down into the ground with startling force. "Don't you get it? I can't! I can't _**close **_my _**eyes**_!" She lets out a shriek. "I thought you were _**different**_! I thought you—you!"

Another pain to Len's chest. He doesn't know where it comes from. He's never felt anything like it before. With every punctuated shout, another physical blow lands against his head. So, he does the only thing he can think to. In one sudden moment, Len lurches forward, grabs Miku around the shoulders, and hugs her, tight.

It's not a comfortable gesture. It's not warm or loving. It doesn't matter that Miku smells bad, it doesn't matter that he's too bony for it to feel good or that she's too cold for any warmth to pass through them. It doesn't matter than Miku stops breathing all together or that Len doesn't know what he's doing. He just doesn't let go.

Something inside Miku breaks.

Her body falls limp against Len's. Slightly startled, he pulls back, his hands still firmly on her shoulders.

As his analytical eyes observe her every feature, something screams in his face. Miku's hair looks… red. Since when…? Isn't it…? What color is it usually? Wait… no, no it's red. Yes it's red, always has been. Right?

Right?

"_Right?"_

"Miku?" he asks softly.

Her eyes open. Blink. Slow. So slow. Even. Smooth movements. Miku's posture changes. Her face changes. Her expression, her eyes simply shift away, like he's not even there anymore. She frowns but it's… she _pouts, _like a petulant child.

"I don't…" she speaks and her voice sounds… different. It's the same voice but _worlds _apart. Len can't figure out what sounds different about it. Does it even sound any different at all? No… of course not. "Wait… shh," Miku whispers. Suddenly she staggers to her feet, tripping over Len, catching herself, stumbling, and falls against the windowed wall. Her eyes widen and narrow. She raises a hand to her head, he can see her eyes, angry and bizarre locked onto her own reflection in the glass. She opens her mouth slightly and says one word.

"_Bitch!" _

Then something hits her from behind, _inside-behind, _a quick, too late, "LOOK OUT!" from somewhere inside her, and—


	7. Others

**Hello, sorry for another late update. I had finals, (I won an award for 'academic excellence', yay me!), then Thursday (the first one of summer) my precious baby girl, my lovely, snarky dog of 11 years died, then Friday I spent all day with my lovely idiot friends as we attempted to cram ourselves (that's three tall teenage guys and me) into a tiny two-person photobooth at the mall, and yesterday (Saturday) was Phoenix Commicon, huzzah! I didn't cosplay this year and I had absolutely no money which was awful because there was a statue of Levi in his cleaning gear and this gorgeous Attack on Titan blanket with the scout regiment symbol on it AND the one T-shirt I desperately wanted (it was a Zim-Scott Pilgrim cross over that said, "Invade The Word") was sold out. I did get an awesome portal shirt with Companion Cube on it and a purse shaped like a fish with soulless eyes so I guess it's _o-kay. *humpf.* _Zim and all his Zimmy glory is one of my greatest weaknesses but Levi will reduce me to nothing but a puddle of fangirl. **

_**Warning: **_**this chapter contains baaad words and "mild sexual content" if you can even call it that. Basically there's awkwardness and nakedness. That should make up for the wait. **

**Thank you to the new reviewers and follows! I love you guys! 300+ views! Thank you everyone! **

~_**Tiruneko ;3**_

* * *

**-Chapter Seven-**

**Others**

Miku has the distinct feeling of floating through a vast plain of nothingness. A senseless black sea cradles her body, wrapping it's thick winged limbs around her throbbing head and lulling her into a sleep like state where she tip toes across the edge of consciousness and something else entirely. The Void is soundless. Although the relaxation that overtakes her is forceful and all consuming, she does not have the need to sleep. She still somehow retains alertness, though not in the form of any coherent thought. She simply exists in a state of utter contentment.

Then she feels it. The pull. Like someone has wandered into the Void with a flashlight and a baseball bat and is trying to be sneaky and utterly failing because the nature of their gait is clumsy and lame. It's annoying and Miku tries her best to ignore it but the feeling grows. She wants to make it stop, she suddenly _needs _it to stop ruining this bliss, this, this—completeness. This feeling is familiar, this comfort spreading everywhere to each nerve in her body and she faintly has the feeling that she's experienced this before. The pull gets stronger, more persistent.

_Why won't it stop?_ She questions.

_You're such a baby. _

_Shut up… it's just… bothering me._

_Because it isn't supposed to be here, genius. _

_Gee, thanks, Sherlock. I hadn't realized that this unnatural feeling that's upsetting me was unnatural. What would I do without you?_

_Miku, shut up. I got this. _

The whole Void jerks violently forward, and though Miku does not move, it upsets her further. She faintly registers the distant feeling of tears. The Void lurches again. It occurs to her from far away that the other voice, her phantom, is pushing against that encroaching intruder that's come stomping around in here. _Good, get it away from me. _

Miku feels suddenly very naked as the prying feeling gets stronger. She feels exposed, molested, disgusting. She wants it out-out-out but before she can—

**what are you doing this isn't your place I want you out of here not your place a blonde girl smiles she says she wants more of it the other one sneers I'm not an idiot don't hit me again please love me somebody I'm not a monster not defective everyone is so stupid so so stupid it hurts daddy it hurts don't touch me I'm not made of glass not a monster not a monster not stupid not stupid not insane not insane I just want to feel I just want to feel monster stupid sanity swirling god get me out of here water bring me water monster monster monster somebody oh god somebody save me already we don't need to be saved I'm not real**

She sees a blonde with wide eyes, mouth open, gaze contorted in horror, repulsion, fear, real, palpable terror. Before she can ask how she got there, why she's there, why she isn't out yet the girl opens her mouth, it moves, says nothing, and then it's gone. The violation is gone.

_You're welcome. _The phantom says.

Miku thanks it by name and lets herself drift away again.

* * *

Len stares with wide open eyes at the almost different person before him. This Miku with the now red hair that has suddenly changed so drastically in the lighting… but… wasn't it… always? Yes. Must've been. She still appears to be physically tired but her demeanor seems to not take notice of it. Miku glares at her feet.

"This feels icky," she murmurs darkly. She turns to Len, gestures vaguely at Rin's room. "She's a bitch. Dredging up stuff like that. God why'd—" Miku rubs her fingers frantically through her oily hair, shaking it like a wet dog and letting out a string of curses. "Who does she think she _is _not sleeping? So. Fucking. _Gross._"

Len manages a toneless, "what."

"I need-uh… a shower. Some food. An asprin. Sleep is out of the question cos then _she'll _just jump right up front, 'oh look at me, la-la-la la _la.' _I never get a turn. No way am I losing it to sleep." She raises her somehow lighter colored eyes to Len.

The subtle differences in appearance are there. Len can see them. Feel them. He'd have to be an idiot not to. But they don't feel like changes more like traits he had overlooked that now seem way more prominent like a giant, _how could I have missed that? _feeling glaring him in the face. So her hair is red…er. Redder. And her eyes have more blue in them than it had previously seemed but that could just be because of lack of sleep and the more apparent redness could just be because no one has taken the girl for a shower since her breakdown.

"Miku?"

Her eyes glance him over, scowling. "That's not right." She mutters more to herself than him. Her hands touch her eyes gently, then the sides of her head which she shakes in a silent no. She bites her lip. Hard. "Ugh these-" she stomps at the air, growling low before shouting, "motherfucking meds! They _rape _you of _everything!_"

"Miku—"

"DON'T," she shouts, turning on Len, stomping over to him, a glowering, fuming mess of jumbled words and confused harsh stares. "Don't use _that. _It's _wrong! _Everything's fucking wrong!" She cries out inhumanly, obviously fighting tears, huffing like a child. She stomps around for a minute before pressing her palm to her forehead, shaking it slowly. "I don't under_stand._"

Len approaches her, cautiously, slowly, pressing a hand tenderly on her shoulder. She jerks away violently. The warning is clear in her eyes.

"Can you use your magic command-thingy and take me to the bathrooms so I can shower?" From any other person it would've sounded like a plea but from her it just sounds like a half-hearted command.

"Of course," Len says almost automatically.

They leave the room undisturbed by the nurses with her fidgeting and glancing about every which way all at once. When they reach the elevator, Len speaks.

"You called Rin a bitch," he says.

"She made it worse. Now they won't stop-," a groan, "-_talking." _She tugs impulsively on a piece of hair, wincing but continuing to do it anyways. "She shouldn't be so goddamn nosy."

"What."

"Don't give me that innocence bullshit, she tried to get up in my business! She was stompin' around up there and fucking _she _didn't notice and _she _was too late and now _they _won't. Shut. Up!" She punctuates the last shout with a slap to her own head.

"Stop," Len warns but doesn't dare to touch. The elevator dings and the doors begin to slide open when Len presses the door close button.

Her eyes widen. "The door." Len glares at her sharply. "Fuck you open the fucking elevators you shit!"

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Len shouts back.

"You won't let me out of the elevator!" She spits. She bangs on the doors. "Fuck you!" She adds for good measure.

Len huffs. "You're not Miku, are you?" comes out low and dark.

The girl in front of him _loses _it. "Of course I'm not fucking Miku! Do I _look _like Miku! I'm _nothing _like her! _Nothing!" _Hot tears of rage have started to spill from her eyes at an uncontrollable rate.

The shock of the reply is lost on Len and suddenly he can only think to ask her one thing. "Well who are you then!?"

"I don't _know!" _The girl screams at the top of her lungs. She presses her face against the cool metal surface of the elevator doors. "Let me out," she says defeated, exhausted, and desperate. It becomes clear in that moment just how _not _Miku she is. Whoever she is.

Len lets the doors slide open with a soft ding. The girl slowly walks out like a zombie, heading for the bathrooms where she disappears around the corner. Len follows slowly after, lost to the cacophony of his thoughts and sits in a plastic chair outside of the bathroom door.

Bathrooms in the hospital are like school locker rooms. They're large chambers with a wall of door-less toilet stalls on one wall and door-less shower stalls on the opposite. On the wall in between them is a shatter proof mirror and the kind of sinks that turn on from hand motion rather than with nobs. Privacy is a rarity. That's why Len always "convinces" nurses to give him the staff restroom key.

He hears the water start and tries to focus on the simple sounds of his breathing. The halls on this level are abandoned this late at night and Len is grateful for that. He waits for almost half an hour for Not-Miku to reemerge and for the water to turn off but neither things happen.

At forty minutes concern wins out over Len's general teenage-awkwardness and he knocks on the un-lockable door. "Hey," he calls out. No response. "Are you alright?" Still nothing. "I uh, I'm coming in!" He shouts before wincing, putting his hand over his eyes, and pushing the door open.

The sound of water running becomes louder and Len parts his fingers just barely to be able to steer himself to the shower that is running. He can't see the girl in it. Len doesn't blush easily—it's not like it's his first time being in the same room as a naked girl, he's practically inseparable from Rin and it's not like he hasn't had a girlfriend or more than friendly acquaintance before—but this situation is wholly foreign and entirely different. He's not reading in the same room as Rin is changing out of her school uniform beside him because she's tired and dirty and he's not about to take a make out session with another pretty face to the next level, he's entering the only girl's bathroom in a mental hospital because his kinda-sorta friend who has suddenly become an entirely different person has been in the shower soundlessly for almost an hour after having a complete breakdown in an elevator and not sleeping for four days after attempting to mutilate herself in her sleep. So Len blushes as he approaches the running shower.

"Hey," he says when he's positive he's directly in front of the shower stall Not-Miku is in. Nothing. Concern now has a physical form and is gnawing at his brain slowly. Len turns around and opens his eyes, instantly spotting a basket of clean white towels. He recovers his eyes and whips his shirt off in one fluid motion before stepping under the shower's now frigid stream and searching around blindly for the handle. By the time he's found it he's thoroughly soaked and cold. He taps around the floor with his feet before touching something that feels like an (unnaturally soft but that doesn't matter, not like he'd even notice something like that) leg. Len unfolds the towel, exhales, and drops it over where he estimates Miku's form to be.

"I'm uh, opening my eyes now," he announces. He cautiously removes his hand from his face. Through the dripping wet blonde bangs in his eyes he sees with relief that he estimated well. He dropped the towel directly on top of Miku, hiding just below her clavicle down to just barely below her hips. It's enough so that he doesn't feel like a complete and utter pervert.

Miku is sound asleep, slumped against the stall's wall, her head bent at an awkward angle with drool leaking out of the corner of her mouth. She looks restless and uncomfortable and her fingers are pruned, yet she's somehow beautiful, Len can't help but think. Sighing to cover up (to himself really) how uncomfortable he's suddenly become, Len bends down and carefully picks Miku up bridal-style, after covering her better.

He moves her over to the counter of the sinks, letting her slump with her back to the mirror while he reaches for one of the robes conveniently located on hooks beside him. Again closing his eyes, Len lets the towel slide off of Miku. He hears it hit the floor. He places his hand on the back of her neck, sliding it carefully to her upper back and leaning her naked body only as much as necessary into his naked chest just far enough away from the wall that he can slip the robe behind her and just enough into him that she won't hit the floor. He desperately ignores the shudder that works its way up his spine and the burning under his skin at the delicate contact. _You're disgusting, _his subconscious chides. He growls under his breath ignoring how good her skin feels as he works her left arm into the sleeve of the robe before moving to the right. He grabs the collar of the robe and pulls it across her before searching deftly for the sides to pull across her stomach and the strings to tie it together. When he's confident he's done an okay job, Len reluctantly opens his eyes, briefly catching sight of how _red _his face is in the mirror.

Miku is covered (more or less) and Len takes a brief second to arrange the robe better on her thin shoulders. Her hair looks more teal to him now than red and he's briefly grateful for that.

_When her eyes open, what color will they be? Will she be Miku or… that someone else? The one that looked so completely broken… _

Len looks his own tired self in the eyes, the glare of the florescent lights in the windowless room making his skin look sallow and cold and his eyes look dark and old. All he can see are the worry lines etched into his forehead, the circles under his eyes, the faint healing thumb prints under his jaw that had once been so ghastly and horridly purple people stared at him as if it was a miracle he was alive. He continues to stare tiredly into the mirror before he is too repulsed to bear it any longer and tears his mind away from it to tend to the girl still in his arms.

* * *

**Oh um there's gonna be a poll up on my profile about this _potential _one shot idea I had. Check out the poll if you're so inclined.  
**


	8. Shameless Self Promotion Ahead!

_**Warning: Shameless Self Promotion Ahead!**_

Hi everybody! So, first, I'M SO SORRY IT'S BEEN FOREVER SINCE I UPDATED OH MY GOD. I still plan to continue TCW, don't worry, but the reason for this chapter is for me to talk about something _else _I've been working on writing for a while.

As some of you may know, I have a lot of original writing that I work on as well, and, soon I will be self-publishing the first 12 chapters of my baby, a story titled _Into Beyond. _A few months back I found a self publishing site called Smashwords where you can distribute original works of writing to people for money. So, because I've had some of you lovely people tell me how much you like my writing, I decided it wouldn't be a bad idea to post a link to the promotional video I made for this story up on . Do not in any way feel obligated to watch the video if you don't want to! Don't feel obligated to buy the story when it comes out! But it'd be much appreciated ;)

Just a few things: the video is made and voiced-over by me and discloses my real name, first and last. So if you do decide to watch it, if you would please be respectful of the purpose of fanfiction websites and _not _use my real name on here, regardless of whether you buy the story or not, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks!

To follow the link, just_ **remove the spaces **_when you copy and paste.

As for ATFO updates and TCW updates, I'm not sure how long I'll take to get back on my feet with them. Into Beyond has taken up most of my time recently and a great deal of my energy. Plus I'm back in school now, (10th grade whoopie!) and I'm about to turn 15 which means my parents will force me into getting my permit 0~0

Anyways, bellow is the link and a sample of the story.

Just _remove the spaces. _Thank you everyone, I love you all! :)

~Tiruneko ;3

* * *

www. youtube watch? v=A9L_KF0TC68

* * *

.~.

_Into Beyond_

As they walk slowly away from the shack, Shopkeep asks her lowly, under his breath, "What about Tep? The old woman? Will she be alright on her own without a lamp?" Then something occurs to him. "Where even is she?"

Ruby looks off into the vast, interminable darkness.

"Doesn't matter." A silence lies between them, heavy and thick.

"We left a light on. Think she'll come back?"

"Not really."

He watches the shack until it fades from the very farthest reaches of his sight and is swallowed up by the dark and into the nothing.


End file.
